Social and Regulatory Policy

At a UK Future Farmers seminar recently, the NFU president said: “There has got to be a complete review of the competition framework. It has to be done by the Treasury, it has to be serious and it has to be done in 12 months.” Britain’s food trading system is “unique” and...

UK NHS Digital has published its ‘Internet First’ policy, standards and guidelines to help health and social care organisations make their digital services accessible over the internet. The guidelines describe how to make them secure, scalable and where possible consistent. Read about the...

From this Monday – July 8 2019 – Croatia will completely replace the printing of bills on paper by the state and the public sector in Croatia with electronic invoices. This comes inline with the government decision, effective on July 1, on the Law on Compulsory E-Account Receipt in Public...

News spread this week about the UK police force supplier of forensics services being held to ransomware, and the subsequent suspension of their use by the police. The supplier now says everything is back to normal, but data breach repercussions can be lasting for the judicial system, including...

The Single-Use Plastics Directive — Directive (EU) 2019/904 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 5 June 2019 on the reduction of the impact of certain plastic products on the environment—was published in the Official Journal of the European Union. It will impact plastic...

HSJ writes that leaked proposals say the UK NHS’s buying power for goods and services worth up to £10bn could be taken away from individual trusts and placed in central teams. The proposals, drawn up by consultancy firm Deloitte and some NHS procurement professionals, call for a centre-led...

The National Audit Office (NAO) has published a report criticising the UK government’s failure to measure the effectiveness of its funding for international development programmes – writes CivilSociety. While the NAO praises some achievements it does say that the government “has placed...

Conducted in April and May this year, Fusion21’s Procurement Trends Report, representing the views of 100 procurement professionals from 92 organisations in the housing, local authority, education, blue light and health sectors, finds that 39% of procurement managers, directors and supply chain...

International Airport Review announces that the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) has published new regulations to ensure the safe, secure and sustainable operation of drones across Europe, with all states adhering to the same rules. The rules are to help to protect the safety and...

The European Court of Justice recently clarified in an Italian case how a contracting authority should proceed when tenderers (contract bidding and award procedures) lack information required under national procurement law. The CJEU ruling concerned the interaction between what is stipulated in the...

More emphasis should be made on the whole-life benefits of major infrastructure projects than cost, says a new Institute for Civil Engineers (ICE) policy report. The report looks at how the built environment sector can reduce the gap between cost estimates and outturns for major infrastructure...

The UK Government has now implemented the EU Directive on electronic invoicing in public procurement through The Public Procurement Regulations 2019. Contracting authorities and other contracting entities (utilities) are now required to receive and process supplier invoices that comply with the...